Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s 2002 Broadway musical Hairspray is about to settle in San Diego for a two-week run. Hairspray brought Old Globe Artistic Director Jack O’Brien his first Tony Award in 2003. (He received his second in 2004 for directing Shakespeare’s Henry IV at Lincoln Center.) Based on John Waters’1988 film, Hairspray copped eight of its 13 Tony nominations: O’Brien’s for direction of a musical; Harvey Fierstein for his performance as Edna Turnblad; Marissa Jaret Winokur for her performance as Edna’s chubby daughter, Tracey; Dick Latessa for his performance as Edna’s husband; the awards for best musical, best original musical score and best book; and William Ivey Long for costumes.

“Come and see me after the show,” said gay icon Bruce Vilanch, the touring production’s Edna, when contacted by the Gay & Lesbian Times. “I’ll be wriggling out of my girdle.”

Well sure, but how long does it take Bruce to wriggle out of a girdle? It takes hours for him to morph into Edna prior to every show.

“The pantyhose alone take half an hour,” he says. “I have to be lowered into them by cherry picker. It’s not pretty. I don’t know how women do it.”

The GLT found Vilanch ensconced in a posh San Francisco hotel suite in which, he quipped, “I’m the only round thing.” Does performing the show take a lot of energy?

“I do eight shows a week, and yeah, it does,” he says. “It takes as much energy offstage as on, because the moment I get offstage I’m pounced upon by a squad that changes the costume, the wig, the makeup and the glasses. Edna has an extreme makeover during the course of the show. From the time I hit the theatre it’s a physically exhausting experience.”

But physical exertion has it’s good points, Vilanch notes. When asked whether he’s lost weight, he says: “Baby, have I ever! You wouldn’t notice it, but I do. They had to pad my 35-pound fat suit because I’m running around so much. So I’ve actually taken off a few pounds; but then, I eat like a fool …” So what is it like for this comedy icon to take on one of theater’s newest and most endearing characters?

“She’s like so many women I grew up with,” Vilanch says of his character. “They were all mother figures in 1962. Edna’s a big, loving Baltimore housewife who has actually no self-esteem. She’s agoraphobic and she thinks her daughter and her husband are the greatest things since sliced bread. The rest of the world, she’s terrified of. In the course of the show, she discovers her inner fabulosity. She’s very rich.”

When it comes to characters, Vilanch himself is rich. He’s one of Hollywood’s most successful comedy writers, and if the name doesn’t exactly ring a bell, a web search turns up numerous photos that elicit an “Oh, that guy.” While performing as Edna, Vilanch wrote for the 2004 Tony Awards. The multitasker began his career in the ’70s as a Chicago Tribune critic. While in the Windy City, he met Bette Midler, for whom he’s been writing 33 years. He put together a show for Manhattan Transfer and subsequently moved to California possessed of an agent and the promise of work. He’s written for The Brady Bunch Variety Hour and Donnie and Marie as well as numerous Tony, Emmy, Oscar and Grammy awards presentations. Among his clients are Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal, Roseanne Barr and Nathan Lane, who once remarked: “He’s given more great lines to celebrities than a Hollywood coke dealer.”

After a four-year stint on “Hollywood Squares” brought him a modicum of fame – Vilanch occupied the square next to Whoopi – he appeared in a hilarious 1999 Miramax film tribute titled Get Bruce, which featured the usual suspects, among others, Robin Williams, Goldberg, Midler, Lily Tomlin, Barr and Crystal.

Asked if he sings better than Harvey Fierstein, who originated the role of Edna on Broadway, Vilanch says, “Well, I think that’s difficult to quantify. When I was a kid I sang a lot. I did every musical in summer stock – all the Stubby Kaye parts. I just hadn’t exercised the muscle in a while. I wanted to sing as well as Harvey, so I went to Bea Arthur for coaching.” He was a voracious reader as a kid, but with tastes you might call eccentric. When asked what he read as a youngster, he says, “The grosses in Variety. I wanted to know who was doing business where.”

Vilanch was raised in Patterson, New Jersey, near enough to Manhattan to see Broadway shows, which he did with his maiden aunt, Blanche Vilanch. Yes, really. “They did that to her at birth. I don’t know if they thought it was some kind of cruel joke, or they figured she’ll get married young and no one would remember.

“Saturdays were our day. I had a great love of ships, and in those days before terrorism was the action du jour, you used to be able to go onto the ocean liners and wander around until they called ‘All Ashore!’ We’d watch the ship sail and then go to a matinee.” How come he’s so funny?

“A fairy came and waved a wand.” More seriously, Vilanch feels humor is a point of view established in childhood. He was an only child and though he got a lot of attention, he felt “kind of alone,” he says, so he learned how to amuse himself. Asked when he first became aware he was gay, Vilanch said, “You know, I never knew that’s what it was. I was a very sexual child, always fascinated with the body. It was easier to get boys to fool around than girls. As I got older I realized I was attracted to both, a kind of bisexuality thing going on.

“I got to a certain point in college and realized that any woman who was going to invest her life in me deserved more than somebody who was going to be chasing around the Greyhound station looking for sailors.

“I very much wanted to have a family and children and all of that, but I also didn’t want to lead a double life. I chose what I knew I really wanted.”

For a few moments in time, Vilanch, as Edna, gets to parent Tracy. Meanwhile, he’s working on his first novel and watching the newspapers pile up. Hairspray plays at Broadway/San Diego, at the San Diego Civic Theatre, 1200 Third Ave., July 6-18. Call (619) 570-1100 or (619) 220-TIXS for information.